Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Don't show me this message again

Cello Sonata No 2 in F major, Op 123

Introduction

The Cello Sonata No 2 in F major Op 123 is a gem, and a superb opportunity to break away from the repetitive cello repertoire. Romain Rolland described Saint-Saëns as a man ‘tormented by no passions’. Well, here is an opening of a sonata which shows what life could be like at seventy—the age Saint-Saëns was when he composed this work in 1905. Preceded by the lovely and inspired Second Cello Concerto, it was his first chamber music work for six years, since the String Quartet in E minor written for Ysaÿe.

‘Finally it is finished, this damned sonata! Will it please or not? That is the question.’ Thus Saint-Saëns wrote to his publisher, Jacques Durand. He was pleased about including a fugue as one of the variations of the second movement, while ‘the last movement will wake anyone who’s slept through the rest of the piece’. The Romanza is a highlight of all slow movements for cello and piano, and makes the composer’s maxim ‘Surtout, pas d’émotion’ (never too emotional, never making yourself too vulnerable) impossible to heed. ‘The Adagio will bring tears to your eyes’, he wrote to Durand. It leaves you with a feeling that you have been told something important, and is wonderful proof of Saint-Saëns’s emotional range.

Two works from very different composers: Chopin’s works for cello were few and far between, but these two straddle his compositional life: the Introduction and Polonaise was written in 1829 when he was just 19, and the cello sonata in (1845-6) is ...» More

This is the premiere recording of Fauré’s complete Vocalises, a thirty-strong collection which has lain undiscovered for over a hundred years. Written when Fauré was Director of the Paris Conservatoire, these exquisite vignettes find new life in t ...» More